unité

Forms

unité f (oblique plural unitez)^[1]

• uniteit, unitet, unyté^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin ūnitās (“oneness, unity”),^[1][3][4][5] which is formed from ūnus (“one”) and -tās.^[6] Wiktionary calls it a semi-learned borrowing.^[1] In Medieval Latin the word also meant the spiritual union and the unity of the Church, and concord.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLFi's first record is the Athanasian Creed in the Oxford Psalter, which it dates to the first half of the 12th century and the DEAF bibliography to the middle of it: Deu en Trinité, e la Trinité en unité “God in Trinity and the Trinity in unity”.^[8][9] The sense is the state of forming a single whole.^[8][3] Bloch and Wartburg and the DHLF date the word about 1120.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, the state of a whole whose parts are joined, was used above all of the Trinity.^[3][10] Brunetto Latini added about 1265 the more abstract sense “the quality of being one, without parts”.^[8][5] In Middle French the word came to name the arithmetical unit, the number one (Oresme, 1370), and about 1375 concord and agreement.^[5][3] It continues as French unité.^[8]

Timeline

• 1140–1160 – unité in the Athanasian Creed of the Oxford Psalter (first half of the 12th century by the TLFi's dating).^[8][9]
• 1140–1160 – the Proverbes de Salemon of Sanson de Nantuil, an Anglo-Norman text.^[11][12]
• c. 1145 – the first insular record cited by the AND.^[10]
• early 13th century – uniteit in a version of the Vie de saint Alexis.^[13]
• c. 1265 – “oneness, the quality of having no parts” in Brunetto Latini's Trésor.^[8]
• 1370 – “the unit, number one” in Oresme.^[5][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. unity, the union of parts in a single whole.^[10][3]
2. (theology) the unity of the Trinity, the indivisibility of God.^[10]
3. the marital union.^[10]
4. concord, agreement, being of one mind; uniformity.^[10]
5. oneness, the quality of having no parts.^[8][3]

Anglo-Norman

Many of the earliest records are insular: the Oxford Psalter and Sanson de Nantuil's Proverbs are Anglo-Norman, and the AND first cites the word about 1145.^[9][12][10] The AND's senses run from the joining of parts and the unity of the Trinity to unanimity and uniformity.^[10] Middle English took the word, from both French and Latin, as unite, at first in theology, the source of the English word unity.^[14][15]

Descendants

• French unité^[1]
• Middle English unite (borrowed; → English unity, Scots unitie)^[1]

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch, Godefroy, the FEW and the TLFi all head the word unité.^[16][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ FROLEX 3.0, lexique morphologique du français médiéval (IXe–XVe s.), Base de français médiéval, ENS de Lyon (from the BFM, the Nouveau Corpus d'Amsterdam and the DMF), github.com/sheiden/Medieval-French-Language-Toolkit
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 14:48
4. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 699
5. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. unité
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. ūnitās
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. unitas
8. ^ a b c d e f g Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
9. ^ a b c Möhren, Frankwalt, Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF): Complément bibliographique, electronic version (DEAFBiblEl), Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, alma.hadw-bw.de/deafbibl (texts by siglum, with their dates), p. PsOxfM
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. unité
11. ^ Baldinger, Kurt; Möhren, Frankwalt; Städtler, Thomas, eds. (1971–2021), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF), Heidelberg: Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften; DEAFél / DEAFpré, deaf-server.adw.uni-heidelberg.de, p. s.v. unité
12. ^ a b Möhren, Frankwalt, Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF): Complément bibliographique, electronic version (DEAFBiblEl), Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, alma.hadw-bw.de/deafbibl (texts by siglum, with their dates), p. ProvSalSanI
13. ^ Rainsford, Thomas, CorMétAF: lemmatised extracts of Old and Middle French verse and prose (990–1500), github (texts by siglum), p. AlexisAlOS
14. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
15. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
16. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 11:56